Bernalillo County Commissioner Michael Weiner invited a whole civil rights organization to 'go to hell.' He doesn't like the ACLU because they object to holding official public meetings in churches. I agree with the ACLU on this one. When I disagree with something they do, and I have many times, I don't tell them where to go. What liberties we still enjoy in the 'Patriot Act' and GPS tracking age are largely due to the ACLU.
There was another story in the New York Times today about a bible thumping city clerk in New York that refuses to issue marriage licenses to gay couples even though it is the law that she do so. She is being represented by a christian fundamentalist group that says its okay because she is practicing her freedom of religion. If one thinks this out it is easy to see how separation of church and state is truly important. What is next, burning heretics in city parks?
People should not forget that it is the ACLU that fights to protect freedom of religion in this country, but not when it gets involved in official government actions.
The County Commissioners who voted against the resolution to ban official public meetings in local churches must also think that Sharia law is good. Right? Well, probably not but it is a small inroad.
3 comments:
Weiner's comments about the ACLU rubbed me the wrong way, too. Such anger and antagonism by someone elected to represent ALL his constituents. I for another one do not agree that public ceremonies should be held in places of religious worship. I;m sure Mr. Weiner would be quite opposed to a public ceremony being held in a Mosque or The Church of Scientology. Such hatred for Civil liberties makes me sick.
On a related note, there is a Methodist minister in Seattle, a Rich Lang, who is trying to sound the alarm about the fundamentalists, who he says have morphed into something else just since George W Bush, who was one of them. No longer intent on waiting for the end times, they want to take over politically and set up a theocracy and purify the earth for Christ's return. They would mete out capital punishment for things like homosexuality and adultery and lots of other things, and close the prisons and use the prisoners for slave labor. I mean wacko. This Rick Perry is one of them, he says, as is Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin, and it wouldn't be surprising if some of our local local elected officials were of that stripe - all you have to do is listen to what these TV preachers are saying now, Lang says.
You may not hear Perry talk like that, although his far out statements about things like Social Security make more sense in light of it.
I heard an interview with Lang from a few days ago on a podcast last night, and I see it's on You Tube, if you Google his name, if anyone is interested. It's under the heading Christian Fascism.
Weiner's ignorance of what the ACLU does is astronomical. The ACLU has a long record of fighting for religious rights for all Americans. The ACLU fights tirelessly to keep government out of religion, and vice-versa.
Post a Comment